1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 275 Northern Palace Strategy (Revised)

Although Zuo Zongtang did not know exactly how many new people Peng Gang recruited in Hanyang, Hankou and other places.

However, when the Northern Palace left Hengzhou Prefecture and headed north, its troops, including the elderly, women, and children, numbered over 150,000. Now, the number of troops in the Northern Palace's camp is only greater.

With a force of over 100,000 people, it is no longer appropriate to maintain the old style of bandit warfare.

Zuo Zongtang was a pragmatic traditional scholar.

Regardless of their reasons for opposing Confucius's so-called Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother, Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing are cutting off their own wings and are utterly foolish.

Zuo Zongtang did not want Peng Gang to continue to get involved with Hong Yang and others, or at least not to get too close to them, or to go to Jiangning with them.

The political power structure at the top of the Heavenly Kingdom is unstable, and the conflict between the religious leaders Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing and the secular leaders will inevitably erupt sooner or later.

During mobile warfare, the kings were busy with campaigns and had no time to compete for power.

However, once they established their capital in the major city of Jiangning, they were immersed in the gentle embrace of Jiangnan. The six palaces were constantly in close proximity within Jiangning, making it inevitable that the various palaces would vie for power and profit among themselves.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was a religious regime.

When political power is tied to God and truth, the struggle is no longer a simple contest for power, but a struggle over who represents God and who is the true defender of faith.

Political views can be compromised, but doctrines cannot.

Secular regimes vie for secular power, while religious regimes vie not only for secular power but also for absolute religious truth.

Zuo Zongtang acknowledged that Yang Xiuqing was an outstanding strategist and military leader.

However, on the political level, when faced with indecisiveness, Yang Xiuqing, who has descended to earth as the Heavenly Father, has developed a path dependency on the omnipotent Heavenly Father, and is somewhat naive.

It's not that we can't solve problems in the name of God the Father, but we can't ask God the Father to step in and solve problems every time.

Yang Xiuqing was tolerant, but his tolerance was based on the premise that you would not pose a threat to his supreme authority.

Peng Gang's North Hall is clearly not included in this list.

Moreover, Peng Gang's North Temple is not religious and is out of step with the other temples. Being in the same city, it is more likely to become a target of public criticism.

Going to Jiangning with Yang Xiuqing would inevitably lead to political infighting with him.

For all these reasons, Zuo Zongtang did not want Peng Gang to go to Jiangning.

Peng Gang also had no intention of entering Jiangning, which later became Tianjing, to fight against Yang Xiuqing and others.

He looked up and stared at the map on the shelf, his gaze finally settling on the three towns of Wuhan where they were now.

“Hubei is a hub in the Jianghan Plain and a pillar in the south of the Yangtze River. I intend to remain in Wuhan’s three towns, with Wuchang and Hanyang as the base and Yuezhou as a temporary bulwark for Wuchang and Hanyang,” Peng Gang said, expressing his idea.

"When Hubei and Hunan are prosperous, the whole country is well-fed. It's good to stay and guard the three towns of Wuhan, but what does the Eastern King mean by this?" Zuo Zongtang said, stroking his chin.

Wuchang is of extraordinary importance.

The important grain-producing areas, such as the Dongting Lake Plain, the Jianghan Plain, the Poyang Lake Plain, and the Chaohu Plain, are either located around Wuchang or in neighboring provinces.

In times of chaos, food is the key to people's well-being.

Wuchang and Hanyang are close to Hunan, and if they could stay in Wuhan, it would be exactly what Zuo Zongtang and his Hunan students wanted.

After all, the only place in the entire Hunan region that the Taiping Army couldn't conquer before was Changsha, the provincial capital of Hunan, which was heavily guarded.

As long as the situation in Wuchang Prefecture and Hanyang Prefecture is stabilized and the strategy is appropriate, the conditions for a long-term siege of Changsha will be met. Taking Changsha and then occupying the entire Hunan province will not be a distant prospect.

“The Eastern King is focused on Jiangning. If I insist on staying in Wuhan, the Eastern King can’t do anything to me,” Peng Gang said.

"Furthermore, the North Hall is the second largest hall after the East Hall in terms of the number of people, and its navy is the best among all the halls. If we were to discuss which hall could stand firm in the crossroads of nine provinces and the spine of the Yangtze River, it would be none other than our North Hall. The fact that the North Hall is left to guard the three towns of Wuhan is not a bad thing for the East Hall."

"At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, warlords vied for power. Chen Youliang used Wuchang as his base to seize Jingzhou and Xiangyang, thus stabilizing the Northwest. He controlled the Three Gorges, blocking the troops from Sichuan and Hubei, and the provinces of Hunan and Jiangxi fell into his hands."

If it weren't for his murder of his lord and usurpation of the throne, his illegitimate accession, his arrogance, his suspicion and distrust, his inability to manage his generals, and his mistreatment of the soldiers and civilians, and if his opponent hadn't been a figure like the Ming Taizu (Emperor Hongwu), the outcome would have been uncertain. Zuo Zongtang's gaze also focused on the map on the rack.

"Hubei's strategic advantages are mainly concentrated in three places. In terms of the whole country, Xiangyang is the most important. Huan Wen, Liu Yu, Yue Fei, Wu Gong and others have all made achievements by relying on Xiangyang. Cao Cao, Fu Jian and Tuoba Hong also tried to seize Xiangyang and then take over Jiangnan."

From the perspective of the southeast, the focus is on the three towns of Wuhan. The Eastern King is preoccupied with Nanjing, while Your Highness can occupy the three towns of Wuhan and echo him from afar.

In Hubei province, the center of gravity is Jiangling. Located in the Jianghan Plain, Jiangling has convenient waterways. With Jiangling as the center, it controls Xiangyang to the north, Hunan and Hubei to the south, Wuchang to the east, and Xiling to the west, which is enough to support the situation in Hubei and connect with all directions.

Your Highness can use the three towns of Wuhan as a base to retake Jiangling and then capture Xiangyang.

After Hubei was completely occupied, His Highness conquered Hunan.

At that time, the grain, military supplies, scholars, and common people of Hunan were all used by His Highness.

"Going north, we can contend for control of the Central Plains and expel the Tartars; going south, we can recover Guangdong and Guangxi; advancing west, we can seize Sichuan; and going east, even the Heavenly King and the Eastern King will have to rely on Your Highness's whims. Why should we worry about the stability of the realm?"

Hubei Province is roughly triangular in shape, with the Dahong Mountains standing in its heart, dividing it into three relatively independent regions: Xiangyang, Wuchang, and Jiangling.

Zuo Zongtang proposed to manage the three towns of Wuhan, recapture Jiangling, conquer Xiangyang, and then march south to Hunan.

They used the relatively independent and defensible geographical unit of Hunan as their capital to compete for supremacy.

"Sir, you are a man of great talent. Just as Liang Qichao had the Longzhong Plan, Zuo Zongtang has the Hanyang Plan." Peng Gang acknowledged Zuo Zongtang's strategic vision and spoke slowly.

"Formulating a strategy is easy, but executing it is difficult. Gu Liang's Longzhong Plan only helped the Shu Han achieve its goal of dividing the country into three, but it did not achieve the goal of unifying the country. Hubei is a place of constant warfare, and it is not easy to gain a foothold in Hubei." Zuo Zongtang sighed and said.

"What you say is very true. Although the soldiers of the Northern Palace are brave and skilled in battle, their forces are still too few if they want to control Hubei and advance into Hunan."

Moreover, the three towns of Wuhan are strategically important locations that military strategists would fight for, and the Qing government would certainly spare no effort to retake them.

To realize your strategic vision, in the long run, we must win the hearts and minds of the people of Hunan. In the short run, we must win the hearts and minds of the people of Hanyang, Wuchang and other prefectures.

Only in this way can we have a continuous supply of soldiers to strengthen our military. The approach taken by the Eastern King and his ilk, which indiscriminately recruits people without distinguishing between good and bad, prioritizing quantity over quality, is not a sustainable strategy.

Food is the paramount necessity of the people, and food grows from the land. The most crucial way to win the hearts of the people is to ensure that farmers have land.

The previous capture of Jiangling, destruction of the Manchu city, and subsequent withdrawal were due to insufficient troops. Furthermore, the distance between Jingzhou and the three towns of Wuhan was too great, and there was a fear that dividing forces to defend Jiangling would lead to being defeated piecemeal by the Qing army. The Qing army was unable to sustain a long front or control an excessively vast area. Moreover, with autumn approaching and winter imminent, there were concerns about Qing cavalry advancing south from the north.

It is true that the cavalry of the Manchu Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty was completely rendered useless.

The Mongolian cavalry and the Solon cavalry still possessed considerable fighting power, especially the Solon cavalry.

Peng Gang's troops were purely infantry units and had never engaged in direct combat with Qing cavalry, which were organized and dared to launch charges in open battle.

Peng Gang was unsure whether the soldiers of the Northern Palace could withstand the fierce charge of the cavalry and overcome their fear of them.

After all, the Southern Palace's disastrous defeat at Pingnan City was due to being intimidated by the Eight Banners cavalry stationed in Guangzhou, and then being overwhelmed and scattered by the Chu and Dong infantry.

After remaining in the three towns of Wuhan, the phase of mobile warfare came to an end.

Hubei is a battleground, and to gain a foothold there, it is necessary to reshuffle and redistribute the interests in Hubei.

While consolidating its existing base, it expanded its base and gained the support of the vast majority of lower and middle-class people in Hubei, especially Hubei farmers.

By establishing his base in Hubei, he could effectively organize and mobilize the local population, withstand the Qing army's counterattacks, and not be afraid of attrition warfare with the Qing army. He would then seize the opportunity to occupy all of Hubei and take Hunan to the south.

This was a protracted battle that was many times more difficult than defeating the Qing army on the battlefield.

Following up on this, Peng Gang gestured to Li Ruzhao behind him.

“If farmers own land and live a good life, the people who have land will stand up to defend their hard-won good life. Such people will definitely be more enthusiastic about fighting than the soldiers of the Qing army. I have drafted a decree for the equal distribution of land, which I intend to implement first in Wuchang Prefecture and Hanyang County. I hope you will take a look.”

Li Ruzhao, understanding the unspoken message, quickly took out the "Land Law of Wuchang Prefecture and Hanyang County on the Ownership of Land by Farmers" that Peng Gang had been drafting and revising over the past two months from the bookshelf and presented it to Zuo Zongtang.

Zuo Zongtang was slightly taken aback, then took the decree and began to read it.

The main content of this decree is to establish a farmland committee and to dispatch and train land survey teams.

The land in Wuchang Prefecture and Hanyang County was confiscated, and a land survey was conducted with reference to the old fish-scale register of the Qing government. A new register was compiled, and the fertility and barrenness of the land were classified.

Then, through the system of public fields and civilian ownership, the land was distributed to the nearly 200,000 soldiers and civilians in the North Palace for cultivation.

Based on the yield of Zhongtian, ten mu of land were allocated to each soldier and civilian in Beidian.

Of course, the land wasn't given away for nothing.

The soldiers and civilians in Beidian who were allocated land were exempt from paying grain taxes for the first year, but began paying 30% of the grain tax in the second year.

After paying taxes for three years, a formal land deed is granted upon presentation of the tax payment certificate.

At the end of the Daoguang era, Hubei was an important grain-producing area with relatively abundant arable land.

Take Wuchang Prefecture, where Peng Gang plans to be the first to implement the land law that grants land to the tillers, as an example.

Wuchang Prefecture has approximately 2.5 million mu of arable land, with an average of more than 3 mu per capita. This is not only far higher than the average of 1.2 mu per capita in Guangxi, but also far higher than the national average of 2.19 mu per capita.

Based on the previous situation, according to the land distribution standards in Peng Gang's "Land Law of Wuchang Prefecture and Hanyang County on Land Ownership by Tillers", the land in Wuchang Prefecture and Hanyang County was definitely not enough to cover the nearly 200,000 soldiers and civilians in the Northern Palace.

However, Wuchang Prefecture, Hanyang Prefecture, and Yuezhou Prefecture, which Qin Rigang still temporarily occupied.

The population of these three prefectures had been largely taken over by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, especially Wuchang Prefecture.

Apart from the remote Tongcheng and Tongshan counties in the southeastern hills of Hubei, the local people of Wuchang Prefecture fled into the mountains to seek refuge after learning of the fall of the three towns of Wuhan.

The Taiping army only abducted some people from the areas near the county seats of these two counties.

The other prefectures and counties within Wuchang Prefecture, especially Jiangxia County which was attached to the capital, were basically deserted, leaving large tracts of land empty.

Therefore, the land confiscated from wealthy households in Wuchang Prefecture and Hanyang County would certainly be enough to divide among the nearly 200,000 soldiers and civilians of the Northern Palace.

The Taiping army has been stationed in the three prefectures of Wuchang, Hanyang, and Yuezhou for more than three months.

Within three months, the local militias of Wuchang, Hanyang, and Yuezhou were almost completely wiped out, and the wealthy families were basically devoured by the Taiping Army.

The power of the local gentry class was weakened like never before.

It's hard to reform yourself, but easy to reform others.

As an outsider, Peng Gang's subordinates had an inextricable and complicated web of interests with the local landlords.

Land reforms were carried out gradually in the three liberated prefectures of Wuchang, Hanyang, and Yuezhou, and the resistance to the redistribution of land has been significantly reduced.

As for why only the nearly 200,000 soldiers and civilians in the North Palace were given land and fields, it was due to practical considerations.

Firstly, the only people under Peng Gang's command capable of carrying out the complex and arduous task of land distribution are his students and the hundred or so Hunan students brought by Zuo Zongtang and Wang Quan, so manpower is limited.

Secondly, in Peng Gang's view, landlords were engaging in blatant exploitation of peasants through land rent.

Some farmers, however, did not think so. Instead, they felt that the landlords were giving them land to cultivate as a favor, a great kindness, and that it was only right and proper even if the rent was as high as 70% or 80%.

Many people want to rent land but can't even get that opportunity. If you don't farm, there are plenty of people eager to do so.

More than 170 years later, there are still plenty of fools who think overtime is a blessing and speak up for capitalists.

Peng Gang cannot expect farmers of this era to have a high level of self-awareness. He still needs to promote and guide them to realize that it is not a matter of course for landlords to collect rent while lying down, let alone a favor.

Thirdly, the local people were also worried that the Taiping Army would not be able to hold the three towns of Wuhan, and that the Qing army would make a comeback and retaliate against them.

Even when land was allocated to them, not all the people dared to accept it or settle down to cultivate it.

The nearly 200,000 soldiers and civilians in Beidian followed Peng Gang in his rebellion, and these people had a much higher level of self-awareness.

Since we've already rebelled, we might as well rebel to the end; we have no baggage about that.

Haste makes waste; one must consider the actual circumstances in everything.

Only the nearly 200,000 soldiers and civilians in the North Palace were given land.

Only by transforming them into productive self-sufficient farmers can Peng Gang solidify his own base and defend Wuchang and Hanyang prefectures.

To boost the local people's confidence in him, to better distribute land to the local people, and to turn the local people into his base.

Zuo Zongtang originally only hoped that Peng Gang could end his life as a bandit and establish a new ruling order in the occupied areas.

Judging from Peng Gang's "Land Law of Wuchang Prefecture and Hanyang County: Land for the Farmers," Peng Gang not only wanted to establish a new ruling order in the occupied areas, but also wanted to implement the principle of equal land ownership in the proclamation he issued in Hunan.

His ambition and boldness have exceeded Zuo Zongtang's expectations.

Zuo Zongtang was unaware whether Peng Gang was distributing land only to the soldiers and civilians of the Northern Palace who followed him, or to the people in the occupied areas as well.

"Does Your Highness intend to distribute land only to the soldiers and civilians of the Northern Palace, or will you extend the distribution to the counties and prefectures they occupy after giving them land?" Zuo Zongtang asked, raising his eyes after reviewing the "Land Law for the Tillers" drafted by Peng Gang.

The process involved surveying and registering the land, identifying fertile and barren land, registering the military and civilians who received the land, distributing farm tools and seeds, and then carrying out subsequent tax collection, on-site inspections, and other related steps—each step linked to the next.

Although these contents are just a few simple sentences written on paper, their actual implementation is extremely complicated and involves a great deal of work, making it quite difficult.

To complete and implement Peng Gang's decree, a large number of people are needed, and these people also need to have the cultural foundation to be clerks.

“The key to ‘land to the tiller’ lies in the word ‘own.’ It’s just a matter of timing, not whether one owns or doesn’t own it,” Peng Gang said, nodding.

"Wuchang Prefecture and Hanyang County are just the beginning. From now on, all our people will be allocated land. This system will be implemented wherever any territory is recovered, but there will be some differences in the specific details."

"If we can truly enable the people to have land to cultivate, the hearts and minds of the people will be won over." Zuo Zongtang pondered for a moment and said, "However, it will not be easy to implement in practice."

Peng Gang stood up and said to Zuo Zongtang, "If this matter were easy, anyone could do it. Why would I need to discuss this matter in detail with you, sir?"
The redistribution of land was a battle even more crucial than the fighting on the front lines. Sir, you are not one to seek fame or fortune; with your current reputation, you must possess the abilities of an ancient sage.

I would like to request that you, sir, take the lead in supervising this matter, and have my students and other students from Hunan conduct a preliminary survey of the farmland in Jiangxia County, in preparation for the distribution of land. I hope you will not refuse.

Jiangxia County was an attached county of Hubei Province and Wuchang Prefecture. The county had flat terrain and a considerable amount of arable land. Most of the people of Jiangxia County were incorporated into the army by Yang Xiuqing and his men.

The land survey in Jiangxia County was the least difficult, both technically and in terms of practical obstacles.

Peng Gang wanted Zuo Zongtang to lead his students, including Wang Quan, as well as Peng Gang's own third cohort of students, to begin with the easier tasks and gradually move to the more difficult ones, starting with Jiangxia County to survey and register the land and accumulate work experience.

"I, Zuo, am receiving the Northern King's salary, and it is my duty to share his burdens. But I wonder if the Northern King has any records of Jiangxia County?" Zuo Zongtang asked.

"If we had the fish-scale register of Jiangxia County, we could survey the land in Jiangxia County and classify it according to its fertility, which would be much more efficient!"

Zuo Zongtang, who had previously entered the Northern King's camp alone, would not have dared to take on this task.

However, this time he and Wang Quan brought more than 100 students from Hunan.

With these students, and with the help of the fish-scale register of Jiangxia County, he was confident that he could complete the surveying, grading, and registering of the fields in Jiangxia County.

“I have the official records and some private records of Jiangxia County,” Peng Gang said with a slight nod.

(End of this chapter)